The origin of species: A scientific report
by basalisk120
Summary: The origin of equine species on this planet is largely unknown... Until now! This is a scientific report, compiling all of the known facts and figures regarding all identified pony subspecies, not to mention the other sentient beings that share the world with them! Part three, what exactly are the mysterious Arcaeni ponies? Warning, head canon and OC species ahead!
1. Chapter 1: Ponies of the north

_(Disclaimer: This information is entirely MY OWN OPINION. It has nothing to do with information that may ever be revealed in the show, as it stems 100% from my imagination. The only exception to this is any reference to the gods, which was the result of a joint project between me and Valorusspectre. If you disagree, that's cool, this is just what I like to do for fun. Also, some parts to this story revolve largely around non-canon pony subspecies. You have been warned…)_

**On the origin of species.**

The initial origin of all equine forms has certainly been a subject of some conjecture among scholars for many years now, and probably will be for many more, at least until concrete fossil evidence can validate any beliefs. However, we can speculate from our current knowledge, and I will be giving the most generally accepted source of pony evolution in this paper.

As the three main subspecies of equine (Earth pony, pegasus, unicorn – the zebras are actually a distant subspecies of earth pony) are all genetically compatible, and racial traits can easily follow the bloodline of families, it is fairly safe to assume that all pony subspecies descended from a single common ancestor, most likely a primitive combination of the three primary traits. As it is all but impossible to trace the evolution of the immortal alicorns, we can only assume that the few that live on our planet are actually the last direct descendants of those early ponies, who, for the purposes of research, have been dubbed 'proto-alicorns'.

For unknown reasons, and in an indeterminate time zone, this single species of equine split into early forms of the ponies we know today, most likely in order to fulfil very specific environmental niches that their imbalanced qualities would not allow.

What is known, however, is that these early ponies occupied different areas of the known world. The earth ponies and most of their subspecies originated far to the north of what is now Equestria, and were once much larger than the 'southern' earth ponies that now inherit their namesake. The earliest of earth ponies were large, at around the size of the largest Clydesdales and carthorses today, to better adapt to the colder climates. The unicorns, on the other hand, lived further to the south, where the agreeable climate and their mastery of magic lead to their extensive populations over much of the southern known world, and they evolved into over a dozen identified subspecies, although the only two of note are the Equestrian unicorns and the bizarre Arcaeni ponies. Due to the extinction of the Arcaeni, the Equestrian unicorns are now the sole inheritors of their bloodline.

The pegasus ponies, interestingly, have not been known to split into any subspecies that were different enough to warrant identification, and their DNA has remained almost perfectly stable almost since their creation.

Last, but not least, are the earth ponies. Unlike the unicorns, who evolved into many subspecies, almost all of which died, and unlike the pegasus ponies, who barely evolved at all, the Earth ponies seemed to be much more successful with their evolution, with more than three current subspecies currently thriving in the present day. From what we understand of their evolution, around half of the population migrated south into the 'centre' of the known world, while the rest of the population remained in the north. These ponies, finding a much more fertile and safe world from the one they knew, used their ability to use the land around them to their advantage, not to mention their ability to adapt quickly.

With no real need for their large size and thick skin, they became much smaller, and lived longer, becoming much more like the earth ponies that the majority of us are more familiar with. These ponies went on to spread even further south, some of which eventually becoming zebras and other southern equine subspecies. The ones left behind, however, went in the opposite direction.

To cope better with the cold environments, they became yet larger, and their skin and fur became even thicker to keep them as warm as possible. Even the smallest of these ponies was around the size of a modern carthorse, and some of the larger specimens could easily dwarf any other living pony besides an adult alicorn. Their muscles too were usually larger and more defined than that of other subspecies, although it is debated whether this is genetic or a result of the constant race for survival that all of them entered into from birth, constantly defending themselves from the vicious denizens of the north, not to mention constant conflict within their own kind. Also of worthy note in their appearance is that these ponies are known for the fur covering their fetlocks, which is long, shaggy, and most unusually, the same colour as their mane. This phenomenon is very uncommon among southern earth ponies, and is almost unheard of in the other two species, but all known northern earth ponies have these fetlocks, taking great pride in them, sometimes even plaiting or braiding them. The origin of this is largely unknown, as it is not yet understood whether this was a trait held by the original earth ponies, and has been lost on their southern relatives, or it was a recent part of the northern earth pony appearance, possibly due to a limited gene pool. What is believed, however, is that ponies that are born with this mutation have some latent northern genes that result in its appearance.

**Ponies of the north.**

The northern earth ponies are not nearly so populous as they once were, and the only real extended population left in the known world is the region in and around the Godsreach mountains, far to the north of the Crystal mountains, earning them the common name 'Godsreach ponies'. These Godsreach ponies, cut off from the rest of equine society, have opted to retain their primitive, mostly barbaric culture and civilisation rather than join their southern cousins. This resistance to change has left the Godsreach ponies in a unique situation, in that their lives and history is unchanged from how it was thousands and thousands of years ago. This collective knowledge of their past is further enforced by the Godsreach belief of accurately recording and retelling legends and events, meaning that their past deviates little from the truth, despite the fact that it is carried down through hundreds of generations.

Among their most famous and popular stories comes from the being they know as the Djiormunring, or Godsinger in the Equestrian tongue. The legend, which is taught to all Godsreach ponies from a very young age, states that at around 15000 bnmr (Before Nightmare Moon's Return) there was once a mighty warrior, who was so powerful in fact, that he was hailed as the mightiest warrior in all the Godsreach, and due to their impressive physical advantages over the other equines in the world, he was considered the greatest warrior in all the known world.

Having waged battle against all manner of ponies and creatures in his lifetime, he eventually concluded that there were no more beings in the mortal plane that could best him, and he set off for the final frontier, the ethereal realm. The tallest peak in the world at this time, the mountain that would one day become Rent Peak, was subject to a peculiar phenomenon. The Northern lights, which had long been an event of serious religious importance to the Godsreach ponies, seemed almost to touch the tip of the colossal mountain. Gathering a Goh'rah (Warhost) of his strongest warriors, he marched to the peak of the mountain during the northern lights, something considered almost heretical to the other ponies. But the warrior's lust for power was too great, and by undefined means, he ripped open the divide between the world of the living and the world of the immortal.

At this time, it was said that the angels had never known war or strife, especially in their own realm, so were unarmed and untrained when some fifty or sixty of the mortal world's toughest warriors burst forth from almost nowhere and set upon them. However, the angels were still of incredible strength, and outnumbered the mortals by at least four to one. The hero of the story, or villain, as he was soon to be known, broke through the angelic ranks alone, and charged forth into heaven as his fellow warriors fought and died. The legend tells great sweeping stanzas about the glory of the spiritual realm, talking of great halls of gleaming white marble, so tall that one could not see the ceiling from the ground, of gardens that carried every flower in all the world and many more, a place of such effortless and perfect grace that the bulky, fur-clad and scarred warrior seemed almost hideous in comparison.

But eventually, the warrior came to a stop, finding himself in a chamber like no other. He had arrived in the area of the Risenring (Worldsingers), where the most powerful of angels commanded all worldly events with the power of their song. (It is important to note here, that despite the fact that this story has been discredited by many scholars for its fantastical portrayal of the spiritual world, not to mention the seemingly unrealistic deeds of the warriors in the story, it is indeed strange that both their religion and ours speaks of an angelic order that changes the world through song. Seeing as our culture has barely ever met with theirs, and their beliefs would never change to suit others, as is their stubborn personality, we can only conclude that there must be some credibility to the words contained therein.) The warrior in the story is said to have bellowed a challenge to the angels of this order, who proceeded to ignore him, as their purpose is far above that of any mortal challenge. Enraged, the warrior stepped forward, and swinging his axe, beheaded the nearest worldsinger. Unfortunately, the worldsinger that he slew happened to be the leader of their order, and with the faintest whisper of the now furious angels, the warrior was utterly defeated, the very syllables that they spoke crushing him with their gravity. He was defeated, and his foes never even lifted their weapons against him.

The gods, who had long been searching for the intruder into their realm, detected this change in tone, and rushed to the chamber. It was there that the warrior was truly humbled, for the radiant appearance of Goh'darén and Frahfallher (Warbringer and snow maiden respectively – Might and Beauty. Judging from the legends of their appearance, supposedly told from this warrior himself, these were indeed Necros and Galaxial from our own stories.) Alone stripped him of his fighting spirit, and he fell to his knees before them. Enraged by this outcry, the Warbringer is said to have taken the power of the fallen angel and plant it into the warrior. However, in this new, mortal throat, it could no longer create, and his voice could only destroy. Then, in a final act of vengeance for their fallen servants, the duo cursed the warrior's bloodline for all eternity, stating that his descendants would receive the same curse. And with this, they banished him from heaven forever, casting him back down to the mortal plane. From this point on, the northern lights never touched the peak of any mountain again, and the spiritual world was forever beyond the reach of living mortals. At first, his new power was a great advantage to him, and he quickly used it to become the first king of the whole region, becoming an unstoppable force that none could stand against. In time, however, the true depth of the curse was realised when he killed his wife and two of his sons by accident, causing him to later commit suicide. Over the next fifteen thousand years, it is said that that the Godsinger has returned over two dozen times, and many legends and stories have arisen because of it. However, due to a lack of any proof, many scientists disagree with the existence of any Godsinger, claiming that the gods would never afford such power to any mortal, especially one who has wronged. Instead, they believe that the story stemmed from a cautionary tale about an obsession with power. However, it is the belief of myself and several other celebrated equinologists and psychologists that this is unlikely to be the case, due to the nature and culture of the Godsreach.

For one to fully understand the mind-set and nature of a Godsreach pony, it is best to first understand the world in which they live. The place that is generally accepted to be the most dangerous in Equestria is the Everfree forest, which hosts a multitude of voracious predators and often lethal flora. The Godsreach Mountains are considerably different from this. The animals living there are just as dangerous; if not more so, and there is almost no plant life to speak of whatsoever, making food scarce. Adding to this are the factors of extreme cold and altitude, and life in the Godsreach becomes a fierce competition for survival, through which only the strongest can compete. As the Godsinger is classed as a warrior of a greater strength and power than any other, therefore making it a venerated being, it is likely that the story is not one with morals, and is simply a factual recounting. Indeed, even with records of Arcaeni ponies warring with a similar being said to lurk in the mountains, it would be impossible to verify the existence of the Godsinger without a living example. And even though there are rumours of a new Djiormunring born in the mountains, they are yet to be confirmed or examined in any real depth.

**A lost history.**

Sadly, despite the best efforts of the population, there are very few records from the Godsreach that exceed ten thousand year of age, as a catastrophic event in this time decimated the local population to a quarter of what it once was, and even now, they have not fully recovered. This event is known to be true, as accounts have been verified by all of the pony species, except for the unicorns, who still lived too far south to interact with the other pony species. A massive black dragon, known as Yanwäy in the Godsreach tongue, unleashed its wrath on the northern areas of the known world for reasons that have yet to be identified. What is known about this dragon however, is that its size was much greater than that of a normal dragon, indicating that it did not enter into the 'timeless sleep' that most dragons enter at the end of their fourth or fifth millennia, as the strain of such a long life accompanied by such a colossal size is simply too much for almost all dragons to cope with. However, if records are to be believed, its size indicates that it was entering its seventh millennia on this planet, making it the oldest known dragon. The wrath and power of Yanwäy was absolute, and the simple barbarians of the snow were simply no match. Even the highly advanced Arcaeni, who had a city in the north by this point, lost out to the might of the dragon, and the city was lost. This horrific event severed most of the Godsreach ponies' ties with their past, and they were forced to make a new calendar, that marked the event as their first year.

**Regarding Godsreach religion.**

Another argument that many scholars have against the Godsinger story is the appearance of Necros, who is known to be trapped in the underworld for all eternity. However, the most peculiar of all the Godsreach tales does seem to explain this inaccuracy. Apparently, some two thousand years after the Yanwäy event, (Once again, the exact date is not clear) there was a 'mighty culmination of light and magic, that focussed above the peak of our tallest mountain. In a blinding flash, and a roar like a dying dragon, a pillar of light burst forth from the heavens, rending the peak in two…' The legends claim that this was the banishing of Necros, and proof that the ponies are the true chosen beings, as the Gods chose to make their path straight through their lands. However, it is more likely that this was simply due to Rent peak being an important conduit of spiritual power, linking the three realms, despite its closing some seven thousand years before.

Although many scholars are sceptical of this event, it is true that something is very unusual with this particular mountain. No recorded natural phenomenon could possibly result in such a strange landform, and the whole mountain is bathed in such a high level of magical radiation that unicorns and pegasi, who are very much in tune with the magical radiation, cannot go there at all without risk of serious injury or loss of power, and even southern earth ponies have to wear protective clothing when approaching it. It is a sheer testament to the natural resilience and strength of the Godsreach ponies that they can travel to this place at all, let alone actually mine ores from the crack in the centre without severe adverse effects.

After this event, however, nothing of any real significance occurred in the north for another five thousand years, when suddenly, the seers started to scream tales of a great prophecy that would involve the Godsreach, the Godsinger himself and the end of the world. It claimed that Yanwäy would return in a blaze of fire, and with him would rise 'ponies not clad in fur' and 'whose very skin is like shields, and hooves, like swords…' Indeed, this is a rather chilling prophecy that involves the very world ending should a very specific group of heroes not rise from the ashes to stop it. We can only hope that this day is far away.

**End of part one – the ponies of the North. Dated 5/6/0004 pnmr***

**Part two, coming soon – Magic in the south.**

(pnmr – Post Nightmare Moon's Return)


	2. Chapter 2: Magic in the south

**Magic in the south.**

Unicorns are, without a doubt, the strangest of the three pony species. Although the physically frailest of the three, they are usually considered the most intelligent, and due to their high political standing, many also consider them to be the most powerful. This is largely due to their strong magical roots, but also to an evolutionary head start, meaning that they were able to develop as a species and as a culture much faster than their relatives. When the theorised proto-alicorns split into the three species, it is well known that the unicorns were the first to head south, their small, weak bodies not well suited to the frozen wastes of the earth ponies or the harsh pine forests that the pegasi called home at the time. Instead, they seemed to perform some kind of species-wide migration, wherein thousands of unicorns ended up in the temperate, tropical and even desert-like climates of the far south. The temperate and tropical regions were bountiful and perfect for their biology, and so the unicorns thrived.

**A curious adaptation.**

By far the most obvious feature of a unicorn's anatomy is its horn. Protruding from the forehead, the horn is the conduit of the unicorn's power, allowing it to tap into the latent magical radiation all over the world, shaping it to their will. The horn has evolved perfectly over millions of years, although there was once a time when the shape of a horn was extremely varied. The horns of today are probably the most efficient for their size, as although they are weaker than some of the other related species, namely the Arcaeni, their horns are much smaller and simpler in design.

This act of utter simplicity is probably what allowed them to survive, while their more complicated cousins died. The various species of unicorn are only known to have lived in the southern hemisphere until geographically recently, when the great southern deserts split in half, and the great southern ocean rushed in to fill the gap. It was this that lead the few remaining subspecies to migrate north, as the shifting climate no longer made the environment quite so agreeable with the unicorn metabolism. The areas in the south and 'central' regions shifted into a more temperate climate, and the remaining subspecies migrated north for the first time, finally meeting relatives lost to history for millions of years.

The first to venture north were the Arcaeni, who had been scouting the northern territories for years before the event. They swiftly set up their cities, and jealously guarded their knowledge and power in much the same way that they would until their extinction.

Only the Arcaeni, Equestrian, Trinicorn and Ridged Polycorns ever ventured north into the lands near modern-day Equestria, although the Trinicorns never made it far, and favoured the southern deserts to the forests and fields of the central regions. The ridged Polycorns were comparatively successful, although they still did not thrive in the milder region. Indeed, it was the Equestrian unicorn, with their adaptability, and the Arcaeni, with their vastly superior technology, that were able to cope with the new lands.

When they first met the southern earth pony race, the first known contact between Earth pony and Unicorn since their evolution, the Unicorns vastly outnumbered their non-magical cousins, allowing them to quickly establish dominance, but the climate favoured the earth pony metabolism much more, and within a few thousand years, the slightly more short-lived earth ponies outnumbered the unicorns by almost three to one. Still though, the mainly Unicorn-dominant culture remained, and to an extent, it does so to this day.

**Prolific evolution.**

The recorded subspecies of unicorn known to science are as follows:

Equestrian unicorn – the original unicorn form, and the only surviving subspecies. It is theorised that this was the base form from which all of the unicorns originated. By far the most populous species, they were the first to migrate back north into areas near modern day Equestria. Their highly mutable DNA, possibly due to their constant exposure to low-level magical radiation, has, in recent centuries, manifested itself in a staggering range of natural coat and mane colours. It is thought that any Equestrian pony with a colour that does not benefit their heritage and surroundings (i.e.: Earth ponies that are not brown, black, orange, grey, cream, etc. Or a pegasus that does not display blue, green, white or yellow colourations) Can usually trace this back to unicorn blood somewhere in their family.

Arcaeni – a particularly strange unicorn subspecies, with forms so unusual that they were once thought to have been cross-bred with Changelings (After the Canterlot incident, much research has gone into the Changelings, and it is now realised that they are not equines at all, but simply examples of convergent evolution, and are in actual fact, invertebrates, making this theory all but impossible.) The Arcaeni were known to be taller and slimmer than Equestrian unicorns, but the real differences came with their horns. While the Equestrian unicorn's horn is short, spiralled and simple, the Arcaeni had long (The longest were supposedly up to two feet long – almost half the height of a normal pony) thorned, irregular horns which differed wildly from individual to individual. Most curious about these horns however, besides their great size and complexity, was the fact that each one cradled a small ball of coloured light, usually the same colour as their mane or eyes. The Arcaeni were even frailer than the Equestrian subspecies, but their magical prowess was even greater, and their brain power is still without equal, several thousand years after their extinction. Indeed, it is thought that the only way we may ever hope to match their technological mastery is to directly copy their own designs. This too, has its flaws, as even their simplest of constructs are unimaginably complex, and many things that we take to be natural events in the world today may have been influenced and created by the Arcaeni themselves. Indeed, it has only recently been realised that the desert titans, once thought to be the embodiment of stone themselves, are in actual fact Arcaeni constructs, intentionally encased in stone for added protection. (For additional information on the Arcaeni and their machinations, please read part three of this report.)

Binicorn – A curious breed of the unicorn, the Binicorn evolved a second horn in front of the first for unknown reasons. From what scientists can deduce, the Binicorns did not receive any additional magical properties as a result of this, and as their numbers were never known to be large, it is possible that they were merely a stepping stone to another, more effective life form, but their journey was cut short by extinction long ago. At this point, it is unknown whether or not the eastern Binicorn, that were adorned with two horns side by side, were closely related with the other Binicorns, or another form of convergent evolution. At any rate, they were little more successful, and died out only a few hundred years after.

Trinicorn – Yet another multi-horned subspecies, the Trinicorn were adorned with the same horns as the eastern Binicorn, but had another, much smaller horn on their nose. All three horns were magical, to an extent, and although this gave them slightly more raw magical power than the Equestrian unicorn, they had less control and were not as intelligent. They were known to inhabit the massive southern deserts that existed at the time, and were among the most successful of the subspecies and were documented by Equestrian scientists as a primitive culture before their unfortunate extinction at around 2480 bnmr.

Eastern Antlered binicorn – A rare and curious breed, even at their most populous, it is widely understood that the Eastern and Western Antlered Binicorns were once the same species, that possibly came from cross-breeding between unicorns and deer, although this particular fact is not completely accepted as of yet. What is known, however, is that the Eastern variant did live in the same, temperate forests that the deer originally did, and over thousands of years, lost their magical abilities. Like the other subspecies of unicorn, they were not successful, and died out when the deer migrated out of their homeland.

Western Antlered binicorn – By far the rarest and least understood unicorn species, it can only be assumed that the Western antlered Binicorn evolved, in one way or another, into the Arcaeni, and they must have done very quickly. The western variant is only known from a scattered handful of fossils, each of them dated to exist within the same few thousand years, and all of them found in the same place that the Arcaeni was thought to have evolved. This means that their evolution into an entirely different subspecies, quite different and vastly more magically and mentally adept than them, is the fasted case of evolution that science has discovered thus far, with the possible exception of the proto-alicorns, as not enough is known about how they came to be the three main equine species.

Polycorns: The Polycorns were curious, non-magical relatives to the unicorns, known for their mysterious horn combinations. These strange equines diverged into four distinct Polycorns, all of which once inhabited the southern deserts.

Ridged Polycorn: The Ridged Polycorn had two rows of small horns, rarely exceeding two or three inches in length, running down their eyebrows. These were largely for intimidation purposes rather than functional use, and were likely used for rutting competitions like the antlers of the deer.

Nasal Polycorn: These, equally peculiar polycorns had, as their name suggests, a series of small horns on the front of their face that culminated in a longer, central horn. These were reinforced with dense bone, and probably made quite fearsome weapons.

Frilled Polycorn: These are the most unusual and most thorned of all the unicorn species. Their horns are the longest of the polycorns, and the thinnest too. Resembling long needles of bone, the run in a 'v' shape from the centre of their forehead, getting longer as they run down the sides of their heads, reached their longest just behind the ears. The frill then runs down past the cheeks, and a small series of tiny horns ran down their chins. These were naturally very reclusive, and the southernmost breed of equine known to exist. It is of course, entirely possible that they survived when the continents split long ago, existing in the unexplored southern climes.

Knobbled Polycorn: This subspecies was the most irregular of the four, and had the widest horns of the polycorns. These horns were short and blunt, and they were adorned with any number between ten and twenty-five horns spread randomly about their heads and faces, quite often in an asymmetrical pattern. This made the Knobbled Polycorn, by modern standards, the least attractive equine species discovered so far.

There are of course, other classified species of unicorn, but many are still awaiting full acceptance as individual subspecies, as their appearances are very close to that of other unicorn subspecies.

**End part 2 - Magic in the south. Dated 20/6/0004 pnmr.**

**Part 3, coming soon – Arcane artists.**


	3. Chapter 3: Arcane artists

**Arcane artists**

The Arcaeni were by far the most unusual land dwelling ponies discovered so far. Their horns were enormous, doubling their height in extreme cases.

Their general appearance is quite unlike any other species of equine known for many reasons. Their coats were much darker than their unicorn cousins, usually dark greys, reds, blues and blacks, and with quite pale manes, usually a lighter, more vibrant version of their coat colour. They were taller too than most ponies, easily taller than any living unicorns and pegasi, and shorter only than the mighty Godsreach ponies. The best example for their height would probably be the carthorse, but their appearances could not be more different. Carthorses are usually bulky and muscular, which is quite the opposite of the Arcaeni. Although of a similar height to a draught horse, they were very slender, and physically fairly fragile, many of them being thinner than unicorns of a much lesser size. It is theorised that this dramatic lack of mass is due to the sheer power of their horns and brains, giving them the technology to make their own bodies obsolete. It comes as no surprise then, that any Arcaeni that considered themselves 'warriors' (Although the concept of conquest through warfare was considered barbaric to them, and many 'warriors' within their society were frowned upon.) frequently augmented their delicate bodies with strong, unflinching machinery, which, when coupled with their magic, made them devastating on the battlefield.

Their eyes too, were unusual, displaying a clouded quality that shined slightly in direct sunlight with an iridescent quality. This completely masked any sign of a pupil or an iris, and gave them the appearance of being blind. However this unusual visual development did not seem to affect their eyesight in any way, and they could still see with remarkable clarity. The only explanation that we can discern is that their eyes are due to a massive magical radiation build up around their horns, which is in itself a well-documented phenomenon, something that frequently caused the horns of Equestrian unicorns to malfunction.

This is likely due to the roughly tennis ball-sized orb held within their complex, spiked horns, each one glowing with the colour of the owner's manes or eyes. While it is important to note that this is thought to be the source of the Arcaeni's magical ability, (As their non-magical ancestors did not have them) the power of an Arcaeni seemed to depend on the size and complexity of their horn.

Despite these quite radical differences, the Arcaeni were anatomically very similar to any other unicorn, with the exception of their slightly different proportions. Notable among these is also that preserved specimens have been shown to have had a slightly larger brain than any surviving intelligent being, aside from that of the dragons, and the possible exception of the southern reptiles, for which there is insufficient data to be sure.

**The western plains.**

It is widely accepted as fact that the Arcaeni initially evolved from the Western Antlered binicorn, for reasons that were explained in the previous instalment. The Western Antlered binicorns were the native pony species that lived in the vast, rolling plains that are now what we know as the Mild West and its surrounding desert due to shifts in climatic conditions over thousands of years. What is unknown is how these ponies became the Arcaeni in such a small space of time. Their dual antlers are assumed to have fused in the middle of the head, but the origin of their orb is a complete mystery. It is possible that there is the answer hidden in some ruined archive, but intact Arcaeni structures of any kind are incredibly rare.

Nevertheless, at some undefined point in history, the Arcaeni were born unto a world that may not have been ready for them. Their scientific and magical understanding was incredibly advanced, even at their most primitive. While every other species of equine were still mostly existing in caves or nesting in trees, the Arcaeni were setting up a complex monarchy within their own lands, marking their territory with among the first ever structures. Before long, they were not only forming the world's first towns and villages, but the world's first city, originally a sprawling mess, a trading hub far too advanced for anypony other than the Arcaeni to use. After that came the discovery of metallurgy, and the Arcaeni shot up the evolutionary ladder, beginning to make the first prototypes of the incredible inventions that they would become known for. When this marvellous new material started to be used in buildings, the Arcaeni monarchy saw a chance to improve their mighty cities, for now there were several, and a caste of Arcaeni architects were born, a select group of extremely talented inventors whose job it was to oversee the complete redesign of all their cities and to lay the foundation for all future designs. This project was incredibly labour intensive, and used not only the brilliant minds of the architects, but those of the monarchs, military generals, and almost every single significant inventor of the era (Arcaeni seemed to have an incredible affinity with creation, and a huge percentage of their population became scientists, astronomers or inventors.) over several hundred years, thousands of incredible designs were created, of which only mere scraps remain to this day, and it is still complex far beyond our understanding. This impossibly complicated system integrated decorative masonry, metallic supports and the finest examples or Arcaeni technology to create flawless, perfectly scaleable designs for any city.

**Arcaeni architecture**

As all new Arcaeni architecture and city layouts stemmed from a single point, and was only ever added to and edited rather than revised, all of their devices and creations can fit perfectly with any other, all over the ruins of their empire. These designs were detailed, intricate and intensely geometric, with flaws of less than a millimetre across the breadth of entire cities. There was always a giant central structure, which although different in each location, was entirely modular and could be replaced by that of any other. These structures had a hexagonal base, and each point had a main street running off of it. The main power supplies, research facilities and other systems that ran the cities were located underneath the main structure, and the power grid was located underneath the roads. The only other information that we could glean from what little is decipherable with our limited technological understanding is that the cities apparently had many tiers, and a few descriptions of the appropriate use of metals that we have yet to discover for ourselves.

Unfortunately, this lack of remains extends far beyond that of old manuscripts. While what little information we do have reports more than a dozen cities in Equestria alone, the total number of Arcaeni ruins left in the known world is fewer than ten.

The most well-known of these is probably the Clockwork tower, an enormous construct that juts out of the plains to the north of the Canterlotian mountains like a pillar to the heavens themselves. From a distance, it is clear that the outline of the tower is bizarre and irregular, but only when one gets close can one actually see the full majesty of the clockwork tower. The whole surface of the tower is adorned with a bewildering assortment of gears, cogs, pistons and all manner of other examples of mechanical mastery.

Although the tower rises several hundred meters from the ground, it is clear that the tip of the tower is certainly missing, and it is theorised that up to half of the tower no longer exists. The purpose of the tower is currently unknown, but it is most likely that it is some form of measuring instrument, although what it might have monitored is lost with the rest of the tower. Whatever it was that it measured, it was with a precision considered impossible with our crude technology.

**Arcaeni culture**

As previously mentioned, the Arcaeni were not a warlike species in their golden age, although apparently, this was not always so. Even though they wrested dominion over the known world in a time when we were at our most primitive, it seems unlikely that we would just hoof our land over to them. As a result, some form of military prompting was used. Also, it is well documented in the Godsreach scrolls that the Arcaeni were frequently pushed into open warfare with the Godsreach warriors, and both races were known to respect the military prowess of the other. However, this uneasy alliance was apparently shattered after the appearance of the Godsinger, who supposedly helped his kin take back their land once and for all. As the very existence of the Godsinger is still disputed, this story may or may not be true, although the Arcaeni does bring mention to a legendary Godsreach stallion with mysterious abilities, but the extent and specifications of these abilities has been lost to the ages. Could they be referring to the Godsinger? On a personal level, I hope that this is the case.

In these early times, the Arcaeni military was a powerful one indeed, both to the burgeoning equine species and the politics of Arcaeni life. The act of aggressive augmentation – the art of replacing body parts with mechanical ones that make one a more powerful warrior, for example, concealed blades and optical enhancements that allow one to detect infra-red or magical radiation. During these dark times of conquest and warfare, these 'upgrades' were very fashionable even in civilian lifestyle.

However, when the Arcaeni empire was well seated in the world, the military was no longer really needed. Being a warrior was no longer popular in complex Arcaeni society, and castes such as architects and engineers became prevalent in their culture. This resulted in huge leaps forward in their already advanced technology, which gave them incredible defence mechanisms in all of their cities, and from all forms of attack. Then, when some basic combat droids were implemented as guards, military personnel were only useful in the deployment of said droids and in strategy. As a result, many Arcaeni, finding themselves with violent or warlike talents sent themselves into personal exile, in the belief that they were not useful to the peaceful advances of the Arcaeni race, or would bring death and pain to their kinsfolk. This resulted in other forms of body manipulation became more prevalent, and warriors that did not exile themselves became almost like secondary citizens, seen to be detrimental to their grand plans. It is due to this catastrophic lack of any military presence that eventually lead to their downfall, as perhaps they could have fought back before their fate was sealed.

**Masters of the machine**

However, this complete reversal of Arcaeni politics meant that inventors and creators held enormous sway, and had huge amounts of funding to create yet more fantastic creations. Their already impressive technological breakthroughs were increased tenfold, and their designs became more and more fantastical, and more and more unfathomable with it. This resulted in a return in bodily augmentation, although in a strictly non-violent fashion. Such bodily adjustments included reinforced joints and sometimes bones, a number of automatically operating lenses that flicked over the eyes, allowing the user to see anything from thermal radiation to the flow of magic in the air, and even allowed one to see truly tiny objects, making them vital in the creation of incredibly fine Arcaeni constructs. Others included a robotic arm that was spliced in above the shoulder, ending with a hand much like that of a griffon or dragon. This allowed them to manipulate items without the use of magic, like in an area of a high concentration of magical radiation where using magic would be dangerous.

This act of tearing apart the body and replacing it with hard, unfeeling metal may seem grim to us, even barbaric, but to understand the thought processes behind it, one needs to understand their religion.

Like the Godsreach ponies far to the north, they had two primary gods, which they named Necros and Galaxial, identical to the Equestrian names. (Could we have inherited the Arcaeni religion? It is true that we appear to have inherited almost everything about their language, so this is possible.) To them, Necros was the creator of all matter and life forms, whereas Galaxial made spirits and souls for all living things, and supposedly blessed the Arcaeni machinations with souls of their own. These souls were considered greater than the souls of living things, and sought to increase the power of their own souls (And therefore make themselves closer to Galaxial) by making themselves more and more in tune with their creations.

Supposedly then, this would imply that the greatest and most spiritually transcendent of all beings would be one that has replaced their entire body with metal parts, making themselves nigh indestructible and holy without compare? We do not know for sure that this was the case, or if it even occurred, but a small number of blueprints that seem to describe the creation of parts for an entirely mechanical pony were discovered deep underground by a team of scientists, and were on display in the Royal Canterlot museum of equine history, until they were stolen just over a year ago, along with a number of other priceless Arcaeni artefacts. These were probably stolen for sale on the black market, but it cannot be ruled out that somepony wishes to continue this ancient Arcaeni tradition.

But this incredible pacifistic empire was doomed from the beginning. When a catastrophic earthquake pulled apart the southern landmass and dropped hundreds of square miles of land into the sea, carrying the bottom half of a continent hundreds of miles away in just a few short centuries, six Arcaeni cities were on the southern half of this landmass. When the incredible shift in the earth's crust caused the wall of mighty storms and whirlpools that makes the sea impassable to this day, the Arcaeni lost contact with their brothers, and their fate is unknown to this day. They might have even survived, the last vestiges of their culture clinging to a rock hundreds of miles from home. This decimated their population only further, and made them completely unprepared for the greatest war ever known, one that would tear the Arcaeni's blanket of magic and science out from underneath them.

**The fall of an empire**

Even in their peak, the Arcaeni were never a populous species, and by the time they started to decline in number, a number of contributions were responsible. However, one word is all that is required to describe the total downfall of the entire Arcaeni species, and ultimately, bring about their demise.

Discord.

It was during the draconequus's original conquest of the world that the Arcaeni finally met their match. As the only ponies with the power to combat him, the Arcaeni took it upon themselves to save the world from descending into chaos. Sadly, to their disadvantage, the Arcaeni in themselves, a race of mostly calm, logical beings that mirrored this mentality into everything that they created, directly contradicted Discord's abilities of chaos and randomisation. As a result, the two formed an almost genocidal campaign to destroy each other, losing untold thousands of Arcaeni with every (unsuccessful) conflict. Conversely, there seemed to be almost no end to the power of Discord's wrath. Every device, machination or weapon that they tried against him seemed to fail, and they were forced to become more and more imaginative and theoretical when thinking of ways to combat him.

Countless plans came and went in this time, harrowing decades of total war that even the hyperintelligent Arcaeni could never have foreseen ripping apart their population. It is because of Discord that we have so few ruins to search and explore to this day, because he utterly obliterated any city that he conquered, also crushing and toppling any construct that he could find.

But eventually, small ideas became bigger ideas, and the Arcaeni began to fight back. The most well-known invention of this time were the reality spheres, roughly spherical devices about the size of a pony that, when powered, were able to resonate at such a frequency in both the real and magical spectrums that they literally shook apart the chaotic magic influencing the world. Each one could restore reality to an area the size of a small village, and were heralded as a miracle at the time, allowing ponies within them to live much as they had done before. But this breakdown of Discord's magic didn't go unnoticed, and he could trace the areas of reality with startling accuracy. Next came another idea, a form of magical nexus long used to subdue rampaging dragons, (Many claim that this invention was seen with such regularity in almost every city was due to the Yanway attack several thousand years before. It is true that this was the first time that the Arcaeni truly saw the dragons as a threat, and they rarely invented a device for which they had yet to need.) could, with some major changes, be used to capture Discord, for a limited amount of time. Discord himself was a creature not only soaked in, but actually emitted magical radiation. For this reason, a magical nexus would not work, as he could merely manipulate it with his mind, much as he did the world around him. It was for this reason that conventional spells and explosives had little effect on him. Instead, Arcaeni scientists devised a nexus out of what we would call 'dark magic.' According to Arcaeni records, this Dark magic was not wholly evil, as many would assume, it is merely a negative spectrum to ordinary magic, with both similarities and differences. However, any form of exposure was strictly forbidden, as it was apparently known that it could cause both insanity and hostility toward others. (It is important to note that until the discovery that Arcaeni ponies used dark magic, it was purely theoretical to Equestrian scientists and its existence was under heavy debate.) Until this point, dark magic had only been used as a power source, capturing it and using it to generate electricity or heat to power their machines.

This plan, along with the reality spheres and many others, was taken to a then secret research facility hidden underground, the largest and greatest the world has ever, and possibly will ever, see. Inside the facility's reinforced and magically cloaked walls, the most powerful minds in existence pooled their efforts into a single weapon with the power to defeat Discord once and for all. What they had discovered, after covering dozens of square meters with complex equations and algorithms that governed the very nature of magical flow and radiation, was a series of rhythmic patterns that repeated themselves many times over, something that could only be explained by the existence of six hubs of enormous power, completely redesigning the way that they saw magic and its reason for existence. They held together huge amounts of the natural magic on the planet, keeping it stable. As soon as they were discovered, the scientists poured their efforts into implementing them.

After an unknown amount of time, the facility was ready. Sketches exist of the finished facility, and it is an impressive structure indeed. Three identical towers rose several hundred feet into the air in a triangular formation when it was ready to combat Discord, gaps in their armoured sides displaying a plethora of mechanical designs and machinery. Then, three collosal reality spheres, each concealed in one of the towers, were activated, and an area twice the size of Canterlot was returned to normal. The trap was set. As Discord approached, furious that the Arcaeni had managed to conceal something so gargantuan from him, according to the records, the second portion of the trap was unleashed, and a web of dark energy flowed from the tips of the towers, binding itself to the Demigod's form and holding him, writhing, in place. Then, the true power of the facility was put into use.

Descriptions of the event claim that a number of huge metal rings floated, unaided, within the trinity of towers. Then, a beam of energy shot up the centre of these rings, coming to a stop just above the peaks of the towers, and a series of rings of different sizes spun slowly around this concentration of energy. This beam, formerly blue, was said to become a rainbow of colour, and was so bright that it was hard to look at. Then, more rings emerged from the facility, arranging themselves in decreasing size order, forming a cone-like structure pointing toward Discord. Then, the firing sequence was initiated.

But there was a problem. The calculations lacked a single fundamental element – The nodes of power required passion and soul to truly harness their power, and the Arcaeni's device of cold metal and heartless science was simply not enough to contain the elements. Just as the firing sequence released the initial beam of destructive magical energy, the resonation in the magical flow started to shake the rings, disrupting the focussing of the beam. The resonation only increased as the unstoppable beam intensified, and before long, the facility could take no more. With a mighty flash of light and power, one of the largest rings was shaken completely out of place, knocking others out of their path and diverting the beam. One of the now glowing, irradiated rings smashed into the peak of a tower, wrenching the mighty, proud structure so far out of place that it began to fall, engulfed in flame as its inner workings combusted magnificently. The path of the beam then curved, utterly obliterating the other two towers of the facility.

The moment the first tower was hit, the nexus was broken, and the injured Discord was released, forced to flee due to his wounds. But he needn't have worried. The facility was destroyed, the empire's greatest minds dead, and with it, any hope of the dwindling Arcaeni's survival. It was a shame, therefore, that the Arcaeni would be extinct by the time the elements were used successfully to imprison Discord in stone by the only two beings powerful enough to harness them – Princesses Luna and Celestia. Little did the Arcaeni know that they were dealing with primitive versions of the elements of harmony.

(All sources for the Arcaeni's final battle are from a series of scrolls found just four months prior to this text, in a crypt that eventually turned out to be the archives of the facility that was destroyed in this battle.)

**Inheritors of all they left behind**

It is known that when they were killed, the Arcaeni were heavily looking into an heir for their empire, a race of ponies destined to take up their mantle and rule in their stead. But at that time, no ponies were even nearly advanced enough to even comprehend that which they had wrought.

As a result, they seem to have poured a great deal of time into finding anypony that might survive in their stead. From what we can understand, they decided that Equestrian ponies, or more specifically, Equestrian unicorns, were the ones who should take up the mantle. Our main reason for this decision is a landmark on our horizon all over the country. In the mountain range now known as the Canterlotians, the Arcaeni cut out a huge shelf onto the side of one of the sheer cliff faces and built a misshapen, sprawling city, one very unusual for them. But the main part of this city was the chambers that were dug into the side of the mountain, vastly increasing living space.

As I'm sure you understand, however, this city is no longer standing. Like almost all Arcaeni cities, Discord was the culprit for destroying this city, and he did so absolutely. But the foundation for the city, the shelf and the undercity, survived Discord's wrath. If one were to look for the remains of this city now, they would find themselves face-to-face with Equestria's capital city, Canterlot. Before the first Nightmare moon incident, Canterlot was not a large city, but after the Palace of the royal pony sisters was abandoned, it grew exponentially in size. This lead to exploration of the maze of ruins that lay within the mountains, although it is still closed to the public. Inside is housed all manner of Arcaeni artefacts, found over the centuries all over the known world. But perhaps the most important one of all was found there, under the city. At the very centre of the labyrinth, on a small podium and illuminated by a dozen small shafts of light at all times, is a small metal cube, intricately carved and detailed. On it is written, in Equestrian, (Not the Arcaeni sub dialect) is a simple message:

"If you can understand this device, you can understand all we have wrought."

Underneath this message is a single button, the only part of the cube's surface that can be activated. Once pressed, but cube opens up, almost doubling in size and revealing an incomprehensible mess of gears, cogs and other pieces of machinery so bizarre that we have no words to describe them yet.

Since its discovery in 889 bnmr, dozens of ponies have poured their lives into its seemingly infinite complexities, and even the Princesses themselves have spent their share of time with the cube. And yet, still next to nothing is known about it. Its very purpose is still under debate, and nopony seems to agree. I myself have seen the cube, although it is light years ahead of my understanding. But this is far from the only functioning vestige of the incredible Arcaeni design.

The most peculiar and perhaps the most famous of all the remaining Arcaeni artefacts are the desert titans. The fifteen desert titans are such unusual constructs that they were not believed to be Arcaeni at all, at first and were thought to be magical beings. On the outside, they are almost like moving mountains, gargantuan monstrosities more than two hundred and fifty feet tall, with two, stumpy hind legs, two enormous arms tipped with two blunt fingers and a thumb, and a small, mouthless head, complete with two glowing yellow eyes. Their backs were heavily hunched and peaked like that of a real mountain. The fifteen beasts have been stalking across the far southern deserts since the war with Discord, and they show no signs of stopping or even slowing. But it was not Equestrians that first found these huge beasts. When Explorers finally ventured far enough into the deserts to find these creatures, (The ground was said to shake enough to throw a pony into the air with every step for more than half an hour before the titan actually arrived.) they found that the titans had actually been colonised, and a number of ramshackle huts and walkways littered the upper reaches of the massive construct. The dwellers turned out to be Zebras, a peculiar series of settlements, one on each of the titans. They too were blissfully unaware of the titan's true history, believing them to be incarnations of the gods themselves, bringing rock to life.

These zebras spend almost their whole lives on the backs of these mighty beings, only sending down small parties to get food and water to sustain the village. The reason for this odd existence is apparently due to large burrowing predators that forced the zebras to spend as much time away from the sand as possible, leading them to live more than 200 feet above it. (It is important to note that no such creatures have been found at all in the deserts, so it is possible that they starved when their food source evaded them.)

Their true purpose, however, as Arcaeni constructs, is even more unusual. (The Arcaeni almost never built something without good reason.) They were built during the Discord campaign, when safety and protection was vital. In the southern deserts, there was a massive building project that had just begun when Discord arrived, and there was no way that it was going to stop. It was a colossal city, one hundred times that which had ever been created before. When it was complete, it was going to house every single example of the species on the planet. It was a mighty undertaking and the basic lines spreading in the six directions commonplace in Arcaeni design.

The titans were among the more desperate defence strategies, designed to fight Discord. They were made of the most durable alloys known to Arcaeni science, and their dark magic cores were huge and powerful enough to fuel all their needs for thousands and thousands of years. On top of their domed metal backs was mounted a large reality sphere that covered their entire bodies with a protective layer, and to protect the sphere and the superstructure from any other damage that Discord could deal, they were encased in stone (Through means still unknown to science.)

When they were released, Discord immediately set upon them in much the same way that he attacked any other Arcaeni construct. But he soon realised that the Titans were different. No matter what he tried, nothing seemed able to harm them. Whenever he tried to exert his chaotic influence over the titans, the reality spheres blocked all of his attacks, rendering them useless. When he tried to simply crack their rocky shells like an egg, the sturdy stone armour and mechanical shock absorbers shrugged off everything that he threw at them. When he realised that their sluggish movements were of no harm to him, he apparently decided that they were random and peculiar enough to simply be left to their own devices, and he let all of them roam free. They function autonomously, with a low-level mechanical intelligence. As a result, they have been wandering, seemingly without purpose, in random directions across the desert. Truly, they are icons of the Arcaeni, unstoppable marvels of technology.

Another remaining defence mechanism, that has gained a great deal of popularity of late, was discovered less than a year ago, sadly by myself and former partners in science. This event is now dubbed 'the Baltimare incident', and is by far the worst experience of my life. It staggers the mind that a culture so peaceful as the Arcaeni could ever devise such a horrifying and grizzly defence mechanism, killing its victims in the worst manner possible. I was the sole survivor of this incident, losing four of my closest friend to the monster, before it was finally stopped, on the threshold of being released into the city. However, I am currently still fighting for intellectual rights to describing the Baltimare incident in correct, eye witness detail, and until then, I cannot divulge the nature of the ghastly beings that can lurk within the depths of Arcaeni structure. What I will note, though, is to refrain from touching or even approaching anything that you do not recognise or understand while exploring Arcaeni ruins.

The final, and most worrying of these, is an invention that has not technically been uncovered yet, but is known to still be active and is somewhere north of Canterlot.

Buried more than one hundred meters underground, lies something that could well rewrite the laws of intelligence as we see it. The only description we have of this bizarre device is from a single description, found on an old Arcaeni manuscript.

_The finished being was of infinite mechanical beauty. At almost one hundred meters tall, it is encased in our largest artificial cavern to date. It is a mighty mass of gears and cogs, ranging from ones over twenty feet across and weighing more than dozen tonnes, to gears so small that they are merely undefined dots without magnification. When the being was first activated, the fifteen dark magic generators hummed into life, and all of the gears spun in a wondrous, mesmerising pattern, each gear shifting endlessly to connect to different gears, improving on our usual 'problem solving devices' on such a vast scale that is should be able to comprehend itself. In short, the machine will be able to think._

_We retreated to the control centre, and we gathered around the central console. With fevered anticipation, we communicated a greeting to the mighty being. After many moments of silence, each more tense than the last, the great one replied:_

"_What is it you want from me?"_

This construct was supposedly capable of sentient thought, and has apparently been online and alone for almost three thousand years. How its sanity has held up is something that we may only discover when we find it. And for once, it is not an adventure that I wish to be a part of. I have dealt with intelligent Arcaeni constructs before, and I never wish to again as long as I live.

**End of part three – Arcane artists. Dated 16/4/0005 pnmr**

**Part four, coming soon – Guardians of time.**

**00000000**

**And that's the Arcaeni, everypony! Readers of the Steelhoof series might notice a little nod I gave to the backstory of some designs, and in fact, a surprising amount of the story is actually tied together by Arcaeni, although a lot of it is behind the scenes. **

**And yes, I have completely worked out exactly what was behind the Baltimare incident, and I will one day turn it into a story. I just didn't want to ruin the surprise.**


End file.
